Roots

This would be Brody and Brayden's GREAT-GREAT- GRANDPARENTS

Grandpa and Grandma Rowland
Elbert and Dora (Mitten)

Grandpa and Grandma Bray

Roy and Gladys (Herrin)

These are my grandparents. My Grandpa Rowland I barely remember since he died when I was a preschooler. I remember him always being in the bed (he was prone to mini strokes and was partially paralyzed). That must have been tough for him given the stories mom use to tell me of how he practically lived in the woods hunting and collecting wild honey. He was a real outdoors man. My Grandpa Bray went next after we had moved back to Arkansas, I must have been in the 6th grade. I really never knew him either; except for the occasional visit we made back to Arkansas while Dad was in the Air Force I was never around him. I know he had a great farm and made a living at truck farming except for the few years he worked for the highway department. He was a great Sunday school teacher and could sing and play the piano.

But my grandmothers, I remember. Grandma Rowland lived with us from the time I started 7th grade. She, Gary, and I all shared the same room! She had Parkinson's disease and you had to listen carefully to understand her. Grandma Bray lived by herself until that fateful day she went into town with my great aunt Gertrude who hit a light pole in the supermarket parking lot. The impact shattered my grandmother's hip and after the surgery to replace her hip she died in the recovery room from a blood clot.

They were good people; honest and hardworking. They took pride in their work. Who is there today who can replace such a generation?